‘Dr’ Bogus Leslie Berlowicz American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Preface / Introduction
Table of Contents 1. 'Some of these days, Oh, you'll miss me honey... your big fat mamma!' 'Dr.' Leslie Berlowitz' nonexistent doctorate roils one of the nation's most respected institutions and the 'little people' get their revenge. 2. 'Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me,' but only if you give them R.E.S.P.E.C.T. 3. Delicious new developments in the riveting matter of 'Dr' Bogus Berlowicz as finger pointing escalates at the abashed American Academy of Arts and Sciences. And don't we love it?
‘Dr’ Bogus Leslie Berlowicz American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
'Some of these days, Oh, you'll miss me honey... your big fat mamma!' 'Dr.' Leslie Berlowitz' nonexistent doctorate roils one of the nation's most respected institutions and the 'little people' get their revenge. by Dr. Jeffrey Lant. Author's program note. Remember Leona Helmsley (1920-2007), widely known as "the Queen of Mean"? She had the great good fortune to marry one of the Great Republic's richest men, hotelier Harry Helmsley... which she thought conferred on her God's permission to belittle, disdain, demean, denigrate all the "little people" of her big bath towel empire; oh, and skip taxes, too, a point of view with which the IRS did not concur... ... and so sent her to the pokey where she tried to bribe her cell-mate to do her prescribed tasks. She vowed not repentance (that was definitely for the "little people") but revenge. And so she left her dog Trouble a twelve million dollar fortune (later reduced as excessive by the court to a mere two million), and so burnished her well-earned reputation as the unchallenged sovereign of gratuitous nastiness, "unchallenged" that is until now, for "Dr." Leslie Berlowitz, (born 1944), gives even Leona a run for the money and that really is saying something given Madame Helmsley's mastery of the stinging put-down and designed-to-hurt insult. But even here "Dr." Berlowitz excels. The scene of hurtful outrage. Appalling though this is, you have probably lived every one of your days in complete and total ignorance about the august American Academy of Arts and Sciences, headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a comfortable walk from where I am writing you today. It occupies spacious digs on five leafy acres in one of the most desirable areas on Earth, hard by Harvard and its unparalleled ability to lift the hitherto obscure to universal prominence and acclaim. Once there, and not a minute sooner, your invitation to membership in the Academy was sure to be in the next post and so it had gone on since this pantheon of certified worthies was established in 1780 by three of the American Revolution's greatest leaders, scholar-patriots John Adams, John Hancock, and James Bowdoin. This was their noble mission, "To cultivate every art and science which may tend to advance the interest, honour, dignity, and happiness of a free, independent, and virtuous people." Since then, and upon this laudable basis, over 10,000 fellows have been inducted, including Thomas Jefferson, John James Audubon, Washington Irving, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Willa Cather, T.S. Eliot, Edward R. Murrow, Jonas Salk, Eudora Welty, Duke Ellington... whilst among the distinguished foreign Honorary Members you find M. le marquis de Lafayette, Charles Darwin and Alec Guinness. It was an unmatched constellation of the legendary, the immortal, and the merely great and celebrated. In 1996, "Dr." Leslie Berlowitz became the Academy's 45th president, with an endowed chair, the William T. Golden Chair, granted to give the lady a suitably comfortable place to ensconce her embonpoint. Only problem was... as reported by The Boston Globe, June 3, 2013, she had falsely claimed -- on documents submitted to federal authorities on grant applications and elsewhere -- that http://www.LizsWorldprofit.com
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‘Dr’ Bogus Leslie Berlowicz American Academy of Arts and Sciences. she had an earned doctorate in English from New York University, which she certainly did not, according to NYU sources. But "Dr." Berlowitz was a woman in a hurry, and she wasn't about to let lack of a simple sheepskin hold her back. No way! So... she invented a character called "Dr." Leslie Berlowitz. Here was a woman of consequence who put the actual woman with her comparatively meager credentials in the hade. These included a master's degree from Columbia University and her duties as an
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‘Dr’ Bogus Leslie Berlowicz American Academy of Arts and Sciences. administrator at NYU. There are questions about both of these. Her master's from Columbia, absent any subsequent doctorate, suggests what is known in the trade as a "terminal master's". Here people who are told they are not doctoral material are given the distinctly inferior consolation prize of the Master of Arts degree and advised to go back to Dog Patch whilst their more favored classmates advance to the eminence of the earned Ph.D. Odds are this is what happened to "Dr." Berlowitz. As for her work experience at NYU, it too is questionable and under scrutiny. NYU sources said that what "Dr." Berlowitz claimed on her resume and the facts do not add up. NYU employment records show that she held a different, lesser job title in one case and held another job for far fewer years than stated in another. It was, in short, a pattern of prevarications, misrepresentations, and deliberate deceits. On this basis she presented herself as a candidate for President of the Academy and was selected. Incredibly, no one on the selection committee seemed to ask about that all-important doctoral dissertation. She was now "Dr." Icarus, with her own Daedalus (the Academy's quarterly journal since 1955), and she flew high... for 17 increasingly dazzling, opulent years. Item. Her total compensation package for 2012 was $598,000, 3 times what her peers in similar organizations were paid; far more than most college presidents. Item: She always dined first class as a matter of course, and of course always flew first class, economy being a word she never countenanced. Item: Her staff kow-towed and catered to her, picking her up at her superb residence overlooking the scenic Charles River, returning her thither of an evening. It was exactly the life fictional "Dr." Berlowitz would have had. OK, she must have constantly rationalized to herself, I lied. But I deserve everything I got. I earned everything. This must have been her constant belief, refrain, and creed. As such it certainly trumped the petty fact that she was every single day living a lie. Results, after all, were more important than mere honesty and integrity. And it must be said, she was a titanic worker, the ultimate micro-manager. As such she had two key constituencies crucial to her success: her board of directors and her staff. She succeeded brilliantly with the first and miserably with the second... and herein lies the crux of the matter, the reason "Dr." Icarus has fallen and will fall further. The Board of Directors, seduced, enfeebled, hobbled, clueless. In theory the designated CEO of any nonprofit organization is subservient to the Board of Directors. In practice, however, every CEO works overtime to ensure that the Board of Directors is subservient to her. This ensures her power, her position and, most important, her pay and perqs. Here "Dr." Berlowitz excelled as we can easily see. When, for instance, a "palace revolution" brought on by staff complaints of her abusive and abrasive treatment almost brought her down just about one year after her appointment, the Board sustained her... and "Dr." Berlowitz got the message: romance the Board morning, noon, and night. It worked. So did doing everything possible to ensure her board candidates were elected... Thus when the current scandal broke, the Board was her poodle... immediately issuing a statement of unqualified support; only very slowly and with obvious reluctance distancing themselves from the "Dr." who had catered to their every wish and whim... something the Board had valued above all, including the humane values they were in business to promote. "Dr." Berlowitz would take care of everything, and if a few of the "little people" complained, well, http://www.LizsWorldprofit.com
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‘Dr’ Bogus Leslie Berlowicz American Academy of Arts and Sciences. you can't make omelettes without breaking eggs. And so we arrive at the "little people", the Academy's staff, in constant turnover humiliated, ignored, angry, aggrieved., resentful, smoldering. Their moment in the drama has now arrived... Right from the time when The Boston Globe broke the first news it was obvious that Academy staff past and present, with their appalling stories of how mauled and mistreated they were, would be a factor as important and influential as her misuse of a non-existent doctoral degree. And here "Dr." Berlowitz did herself in, treating the staff with constant disrespect, no day complete without its hurtful quota of abuse, snide commentary and disparagements, all public, all played out before their colleagues. Thus did the malice and contempt of "Dr." Berlowitz turn the ancient Academy into a snake pit of uncertainty, anxiety, and fear. In this pernicious environment, "Dr." Berlowitz, micro-manager, ruled all. Not a paper left her office that she had not seen. Thus, when she claimed that her negligent staff was responsible for the misuse and misstatement of her bogus credentials, there was a gasp of disbelief at the Academy; the "doctor" had brass, no doubt about it. She had spent decades lying; if one more lie, more or less, was necessary to prevail at this crucial moment in her dissembling career, so be it. This time, however, the lady is sore beset on all sides... by past and present staff who have bided their time and are tumbling over themselves to tell the now attending media about their particular woes... by Board members who begin to see how to get peace and quiet they enabled their creature to outrage their core values and the clear mission of the Founders... and by state and federal authorities set to discover whether and how "Dr." Berlowitz broke the law and may be deserving of a punishment long days coming. All that will come out in the wash as further details emerge. For now her petted directors have put her on leave, whether with her bloated stipend or not was not announced. "Dr." Berlowitz, of course, will fight, and pertinaciously, too, for every penny and privilege until her effete Board says, "basta", whereupon Miss Berlowitz, as the world will then know her, will no doubt take a copy of her book on management and climb the great steps of Harvard's Widener Library, there to read from her business insights found in her deliciously titled tome ,"Restoring Trust in American Business": Then to belt out Sophie Tucker's anthem for brassy dames everywhere, dames who will do anything, absolutely anything to prevail. It's "Some of These Days", first recorded in 1911. Go now to any search engine and listen to these acid lyrics, perfect for Miss Berlowitz and her affecting case of chagrin and rue : "Some of these days/ You'll miss me, honey/Some of these days/ You're gonna be so lonely. You'll miss my hugging/ You'll gonna miss my kisses/ You'll gonna miss me, honey/When I'm far away... Gonna miss your big fat mamma, yo' mamma/ some of these days." It might even work...
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‘Dr’ Bogus Leslie Berlowicz American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
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‘Dr’ Bogus Leslie Berlowicz American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
'Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me,' but only if you give them R.E.S.P.E.C.T. by Dr. Jeffrey Lant . Author's program note. I wrote this article because of the appalling news emanating from one of the greatest institutions of the Great Republic, namely the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Founded in 1780 by three of the titans of the American Revolution, scholar-patriots John Adams, John Hancock, and James Bowdoin, its purpose was laudatory, important, visionary... nothing less than the dedicated uplifting of the new nation so that it would direct, inspire, and improve itself and all the world. Over the years, over 10,000 fellows have been inducted, men and women whose dedicated commitment and unremitting labor have changed the world -- and your life -- over and over again. Thus have we all been the beneficiaries and should know it, the better to extoll its undeniable virtues and signal achievements. Sadly, scandal now rocks this venerable institution in many ways, but all these ways, every single one, point to one person, the Academy's 45th President, the woman who called herself "Dr. Leslie Berlowitz," a prestigious title she bestowed on herself, when her desire for advancement subdued her integrity, judgement and the loyalty she should have felt towards the Academy which raised her high and rained riches, respect, deference and trust upon her, only to be repaid with deceits, prevarications, misrepresentations, and shame. This lamentable result was the product of two breathtaking, supremely arrogant decisions made by "Dr." Berlowicz; first, that she would forge her professional credentials, including the all important doctoral degree and, second, once that bogus degree (and exaggerated employment history) had worked their dark purpose, securing her the lucrative plum job she desired (with its 2012 compensation package yielding $598,000), immediately set about the business of threatening, cowing and controlling her staff, thereby creating an atmosphere of fear, angst, perniciousness, and menace. Thus what should have been the most liberal, progressive and humane institution of the Great Republic became instead the very symbol of hypocrisy, cant, insincerity and dissembling, the corroding antithesis of what its august founders and generations of lofty members desired and worked assiduously to achieve. What's more, aided by the somnolence of her Board of Trustees and an incurious world, this rogue made awesome progress from the moment in 1996 when she became the Academy's president until just the other day in June, 2013 when her web of lies and shoddy practices unraveled on the front page of The Boston Globe, her treatment of the staff ensuring maximum indignation, ribald comments and fascination about how she had gotten away with it all for so very many years. All bad things come to an end. Then one day "Dr." Berlowicz woke up happy as a lark, the world her oyster, another day of proven chicaneries ahead, opened The Boston Globe and... ran smack dab into Nemesis, the goddess of http://www.LizsWorldprofit.com
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‘Dr’ Bogus Leslie Berlowicz American Academy of Arts and Sciences. "what goes around, comes around." And she stood there in her luxurious robe and bunny slippers discovering that God indeed moves in mysterious ways... and now He had come for Leslie. Her jig was well and truly up and no amount of self deception could disguise that crucial fact. And so she became a candidate for that amazing grace that ""saves a wretch like me." How had this happened, after so many years of bountiful misrepresentation? Who blew the whistle on Leslie? I can't tell you for sure, but I'll put my money on a member or members of the Academy's
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‘Dr’ Bogus Leslie Berlowicz American Academy of Arts and Sciences. long suffering staff, people who had endured the slings and arrows of the lady's outrageous fortune. They had suffered in silence, but that silence was now broken and on the front page of The Boston Globe no less. The rage of the "little people" had begun at last and over the next days these folks tumbled over each other with their personal stories of how Madame Leslie, now naked before the world, had humiliated them, shouted at them over trifles, belittled them, demeaned them, denigrated them, so making their lives just as miserable as possible. In such ways, she had established an environment as dark and fearful as any gulag. It was in fact just about as bad as it could be. All because Miss Berlowicz had forgotten one little word... a word Aretha Franklin knew was key for successful staff relations, indeed for any human relationship... and that word was respect. R-E-S-P-E-C-T. A 1967 hit that changed America, the anthem of uncompromising righteousness and determined purpose. On February 14, 1967 Aretha Franklin, about to become a household name and a symbol of the "new woman", got up and sang her way into history.... telling men and reminding women in sharp words that could not possibly be misunderstood, "What you want, baby, I got it/ What you need. You know I got it." This song radiated confidence, clarity about the objective, a determination to stop taking it... and to fight back. It flew high, it was adamant, it was insistent, it was pure energy and unflinching determination... Thrilling! Magnificent! Empowering! Go now to any search engine and listen to it carefully. Its potent magic has the undeniable power to turn back the clock to days when you were young and still finding your way... but you knew upon hearing it, even for the first time, that you would succeed... seizing the respect to which you were entitled but had to be always vigilant to ensure and enjoy. "Yes, respect, all I need is respect." Like all business executives, owners, and managers "Dr." Berlowicz had a choice to make, to treat her staff with decency, courtesy, and, yes, kindness... or not. She chose the dark side of the force, in the process outraging one past and present staff member after another. It worked for a time, a long time, because no one wanted to get on Leslie's notoriously unpredictable and abusive bad side, which might well result in embarrassing chastisement before their peers or even instant dismissal. Thus she got away with one unacceptable behavior after another, her irresponsible board acting like Rip Van Winkle; perhaps unsurprising since Washington Irving was a fellow of the Academy at one time. However, every time she dressed a staff member down, engaged in caustic commentary at their expense, or otherwise belittled and demeaned a staff member she was planting Satan's teeth, in due course to become a minefield of destruction and woe, destroying all of "Dr." Berlowicz' carefully contrived schemes of flagrant and unremitting selfishness. Do not make her mistakes. Instead do the following, all of which comes under that crucial category of R.E.S.P.E.C.T. Honor thy staff. Recognize that you and your staff are two crucial aspects of the same team. Each of you has a distinct but related function. You are not master but leader. Your staff is not composed of so many servants but that many necessary and vital supporters. Only on this basis can there be sustained success. Know thy staff. Each has his strengths and weaknesses. Your job is to learn these, understand these http://www.LizsWorldprofit.com
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‘Dr’ Bogus Leslie Berlowicz American Academy of Arts and Sciences. and, where possible, minimizing weaknesses while maximizing strengths through timely, pertinent education and instruction. Listen to thy staff. Each member of your staff, even the most junior has an opinion about how to make your organization run better and more efficiently. You are not now and will never be the sole repository of information that improves your operation. And never pretend that you are. Instead keep all means of beneficial communication open with the staff, solicit their ideas, consider them carefully, and reward such participation and ideas lavishly. Critique thy staff softly. Praise thy staff loudly. To build the best of teams, the team that deliver success soon and bountifully, you must identify problems and their perpetrators... critiquing them thoroughly but always gently. Remember, you want to improve not demean, enhance not dismay. This process guarantees success. To achieve this success earlier and more thoroughly praise more often and more widely. Always accompany such praise with tangible rewards ranging from free cinema tickets to a free trip to Paris. You are the fountain of honour. Act like it. "Dr." Berlowicz' outrages. We now know from voluminous media reports that Miss Berlowicz outraged each and every one of these crucial points and is, therefore, suffering public disgrace, obloquy, and anger accordingly. She is a marked woman and will be for the rest of her life, her very name a by-word for cruel and hurtful exhibitions, misuse of her high position, and remarks always calculated for maximum pain. In this way, she is a veritable model of what not to do and when not to do it. How different so many lives would have been had she lived by the points listed above. Had she, she would have earned the trust, admiration, and even love of the staff, to each and every one of whom she could say along with Aretha, "I ain't gonna do you wrong because I don't wanna/ All I'm askin' is for a little respect..." And she would have got it, deservedly, for when you treat your staff with R.E.S.P.E.C.T "thy staff, they comfort me." (Psalms 23 verse 4) and so goodness and mercy shall follow thee.... and you will find true success.
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‘Dr’ Bogus Leslie Berlowicz American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Delicious new developments in the riveting matter of 'Dr' Bogus Berlowicz as finger pointing escalates at the abashed American Academy of Arts and Sciences. And don't we love it? Author's program note. Funny how memory works. I hadn't thought of this incident for years... it concerned one of my grandfather's construction projects. He had to eject a nest of rats and so took the simple expedient of using a dollop of gasoline and a match. Those rats moved alright, with record speed. But on its way out, one threw back its head and bit the vermin behind, a good, deep gouge. I like to think Rat #1 was repaying Rat #2 for any number of irritants and exasperations. And that's what's happening right now at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, whose august members, trustees and staff are engaged in an epic rendition of academia's most cherished activity... the art of finger pointing, a recherche' skill refined over a lifetime and kept for just such a moment as this. The objective is plain, to prove beyond any doubt whatsoever that you are righter than right, as usual, and that anyone who disagrees is next door to a certified moron, never mind 18 books and a Nobel Prize. And on this basis, the infants terribles destroy the harmony and quiet disdain that ordinarily defines their sand box. This is why the late William F. Buckley, Jr. (1925-2008), renowned for his puckish commentary once famously said "I'd rather entrust the government of the United States to the first 400 people listed in the Boston telephone directory than to the faculty of Harvard University." What is happening these fascinating days at the American Academy proves his trenchant point... that is why I cannot get enough of this scandal for it shows the best at their worst. The facts. In early June, 2013 The Boston Globe broke the story that the 45th president of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Leslie Berlowicz, who wore her doctoral title like a papal tiara, did not have the earned doctorate in English she claimed New York University had conferred; rather that she had bestowed it on herself which even the most fastidious must admit is faster than the tedious business of working for it. And as Leslie was a girl in a rush, she made the perfectly rational decision that so much tiring effort was for the little people, not titans of moving and shaking like her. No other course of action made any sense at all. Thus she applied to be President of the Academy (1996) the revered institution founded in 1780 by three heroes of the American Revolution, John Adams, John Hancock and James Bowdoin, their goal the constant betterment and improvement of the Great Republic. Her lies were equal to the task at hand, for they secured her the bountiful objective of her schemes, including princely remuneration which in 2012 reached $598,000, a height which even Madam http://www.LizsWorldprofit.com
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‘Dr’ Bogus Leslie Berlowicz American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Leslie may have thought acceptable for such a paragon as she (but probably didn't). She had gambled, she had won, she had proved her superiority and tactical skills, including leveraging her bogus credentials on one false document after another (including grant applications to several agencies of the federal government) to get still more. She had a proven system of success and she worked it with a will. Never mind that she was sole beneficiary or that she brought shame to one of the Great Republic's most respected institutions. The important thing was that she survived and prospered.
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‘Dr’ Bogus Leslie Berlowicz American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Thus, I give you Stephen Sondheim's 1971 masterpiece, "I'm Still Here" from his aptly named musical "Follies". So apropos are the lyrics to the developing scandal at the Academy and Madam Leslie's clear objective to beat the rap and even keep her golden goose, no other tune would do. Go now to any search engine and listen to its bold, bodacious, brassy sound and its unmistakably clear message of what it takes to survive. I prefer the version by Elaine Paige, a diva always worth hearing. Ironically enough the many talented Sondheim was elected a Fellow of the Academy in 2008, very much during Berlowicz' salad days. No doubt Madam Leslie appreciates his often wicked cool lyrics and smooth harmonies, though this may not be her very favorite. "I should have gone to an acting school, that seems clear; Still someone said 'She's sincere,' so I'm here." Latest disclosures, further evidence the Board was asleep at the switch. A short refresher course in the whys and wherefors of nonprofit organizations is now necessary. These organizations, hundreds of thousands strong, are the bedrock of our society, crucial to the way we live and the quality of our lives. Almost all are tax-exempt, that status being conferred upon application and review by the federal government. The power to act and the responsibility for acting resides in what is either called the Board of Directors or Board of Trustees. These people are elected by the Board for either their prestige, management skills and business acumen, or their useful contacts and ability to give donations themselves or connect them to others who can do so. Executive power is delegated by the Board to the individual variously called either president or executive director. This person is responsible to the board for all actions and may or may not have full membership on the board as the organization's by-laws dictate. This executive serves at and may be removed at the pleasure of the Board with or without cause. Thus, in theory, the executive is the creature of the Board, every action open to periodic and regular review either by the full Board or by an executive committee appointed by and responsible to the full Board. Within this framework, the Board rules all... at least in theory. In fact, as glaringly occurred at the Academy, the President , Madam Leslie, subverted the governing structure and systematically replaced their power and authority with her own, leaving directors progressively disengaged from the governing process for which, remember, they remained completely, legally, responsible. How had this inversion occurred? In a nutshell it was because the Board had largely disengaged from the governance of the Academy, thereby creating a vacuum which Berlowicz was only too anxious to fill. "I'll do it" was her policy and governing objective... achievable because she micro-managed just who was elected to the Board, an essential project to which she gave unstinting attention, especially when after just one year in office, she was taken to task by the Board for abusive behavior to the Academy's long-suffering staff. She survived -- just --- no doubt resolving "never again." Her decisive influence over the Board made her regime of control and contempt not merely possible but inevitable. And so... In 2004 "Dr." Berlowicz persuaded her compliant Board to add her name to the roster of more than 200 newly elected members of the Academy -- 6 months after the original election notice, thus making it look like Madam had been voted in to the exalted Pantheon along with everyone else. It was a lie, of course, but by then altering reality was her speciality and by 2004 her skills in this department were peerless. http://www.LizsWorldprofit.com
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‘Dr’ Bogus Leslie Berlowicz American Academy of Arts and Sciences. For instance, as reported in The Boston Globe, several former employees claimed that Berlowicz worked early and late getting just the right candidates for election; "right" being defined as people Madam liked and admired, always blocking those she felt would be inimical to her regime of falseness and favoritism. This included even seeing all the ballots before they were tallied... a device reminiscent of political machines for whom voting the long dead and gone was child's play. Academy spokesman Ray Howell pooh-poohed any such concern saying that while Berlowicz did have access to all ballots, no one need worry since she "was responsible for making sure the election process was administered appropriately". Mr. Howell, no doubt, was speaking in the ironic mode, tongue firmly in cheek. Thus, he follows the party line and stays "loyal". After all, he has a job to protect, and Berlowicz has not resigned or been removed -- yet. And so it goes as one revealing feature after another of her menacing regime seeps out. How she ordered the word "welcome" effaced from the Academy's front door to make sure hoi polloi would understand this nirvana was not for them. How starting three years ago she began closing access to the good people of Cambridge to the 5.1 acres of wooded grounds which the Academy leases from Harvard University. The City of Cambridge intervened to retain the status quo and a place for a pleasant saunter. How the Academy in her regime has blocked access even by qualified scholars to manuscript material of George Washington (who once lived nearby in Cambridge), Thomas Jefferson, and Founder John Adams, and many others thus outraging the very basis of the Academy as a place of unfettered research and the free dissemination of useful knowledge. Why did the Board put up with it all? One guess. With a rap sheet as long as your arm, why didn't the Board act to save the mission, its soul and self respect? Money... that's why. Miss Leslie, you see, was a prodigious fund raiser, skilled in adding generous plutocrats and zillionaire entrepreneurs. Boston Scientific Corp. cofounder Peter Nicholas, who became a Fellow in 1999, gave $2.4 million between 2006-2010 when the Academy raised $39 million. John Cogan, a Boston investment executive who joined the Academy in 2005, gave $1.9 million. Gershon Kekst, Wall Street communications tycoon, elected in 2006, gave a million. There were Fellows, of course, who talked darkly about the evil influence of cash and how these folks were NOKD ("not our kind, dear") but the well-heeled had always been welcome. After all one of the cofounders, John Hancock, was the richest merchant in Boston. Thus had Leslie played her cards better, foregoing the delights of demeaning her staff and affronting anyone and everyone, she might have gone on to scale the invigorating slopes of power, riches and sweet control, her lies known but tolerated because of her undeniable fund raising skills. But moderation was never her metier. And so she is now on paid leave whilst her Board dithers to a decision about what to do, though that should be obvious to even these tabby cats. A person of eminence and known integrity should be appointed to review the case, thence to make recommendations for reasserting the Board's legitimate and legal functions. I recommend Margaret Marshall, recently resigned Chief Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, a woman well respected, who conveniently lives within walking distance of the Academy and knows it well. After all she's been a Fellow since 2001. As for Madam Leslie, I can hardly bear to think of her retiring from the scene, golden parachute in hand. But perhaps she'll survive to fight another day. After all that is the point of Sondheim's gem,
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‘Dr’ Bogus Leslie Berlowicz American Academy of Arts and Sciences. "Good times and bad times, I've seen them all/ And, my dear, I'm still here." And that, for once, is nothing but the truth. It's a start.
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‘Dr’ Bogus Leslie Berlowicz American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
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‘Dr’ Bogus Leslie Berlowicz American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Resource About the Author Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is the author of over 20 print books, 2 ebooks, and over one thousand online articles on a variety of topics. Republished with author's permission by Elizabeth English http://LizsWorldprofit.com.
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